Low-code is NOT traditional development, so why settle for outdated, restrictive pricing?
A lot goes into evaluating a low-code platform.
When comparing leading platforms like OutSystems, Mendix, Microsoft PowerApps or DAZZM, most organizations focus on performance, features and functionalities—but often overlook the true cost of low-code, which should be a key part of strategic decision-making.
Modern low-code development platforms for the enterprise support fast, collaborative software creation. Teams move quickly — experimenting, iterating, and improving app creation to meet user needs.
That’s why the true cost of your low-code platform should reflect how your team actually creates and delivers value.
Usage-based pricing brings flexibility into the process and aligns cost with active usage, not static limits or license counts. It removes barriers to collaboration and makes it easier to scale success across departments and users.
In our 2025 Low-Code Trends Report, we identified a clear shift in how low-code platforms are evaluated, with development organizations seeking greater cost control that supports innovation without the need to compromise between collaboration and growth.
In this article, we’ll walk through a new, modern approach to low-code pricing, and how DAZZM supports your team’s productivity with real usage patterns.
Factors that influence low-code development software pricing
Once you’ve evaluated a platform’s functionality, the next step is understanding how pricing will impact your short- and long-term development plans. A surface-level comparison doesn’t reveal the full picture, especially when it comes to scaling across teams, apps, and time.
A meaningful low-code cost comparison must go beyond license fees to reflect the real costs of adoption and growth.
The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of low-code platforms
From onboarding and collaboration to maintenance and support, here are the key factors that shape the total cost and value of a low-code development platform:
/ Platform Acquisition and Licensing
Traditional low-code platforms use pricing models based on users, apps, or environments. Many of these vendors reserve advanced features for higher-priced enterprise tiers. Adding users or applications mid-project can lead to higher costs. Factors to consider include onboarding services, setup work needed to integrate with your existing systems or enterprise architecture, and any additional fees for access to premium connectors, which can significantly impact the overall cost.
/ Development and Deployment
Custom components may require more development time and internal resources. Developer training or certification can also factor into the cost. Costs may vary depending on whether you’re working in development, staging, or production environments.
/ Training and Support
Business users and IT may require training or onboarding sessions. As your team grows, training needs — and costs — may also increase. Support varies widely from basic to premium, and over time, vendor lock-in can create cost pressures as needs evolve.
/ Time to Creation
Not all low-code platforms deliver the same agility. While speed is core to their promise, the real value lies in how quickly they can turn ideas into deployed apps. Launching in weeks instead of months reduces both direct and opportunity costs.
How much does low-code cost? The limitations of traditional subscription pricing
The vast majority of low-code development platforms use one of three pricing models, each has benefits, but all introduce constraints that limit how modern teams can build, scale, and innovate.
1. Per-user pricing (fixed seat licenses)
✅ Simple to understand and forecast
❌ Adds cost every time a new user (business or IT) needs access
❌ Discourages collaboration across departments
❌ Makes scaling or experimenting with apps more expensive
2. Per-application pricing (often combined with per-user)
✅ Helps prioritize high-impact, strategic apps
❌ Costs discourage small internal apps with no direct ROI
❌ Teams and projects may compete for funding
❌ Limits innovation by rewarding only “safe” ideas
3. Tiered enterprise plans with bundled usage limits
✅ Offers structure and predictability for large enterprises
❌ May lock essential features or integrations behind premium tiers
❌ Often includes usage caps that don’t reflect real-world development cycles
❌ Makes it hard to project costs as app usage or team size grows
The result: teams are forced to make development decisions based on license limits—not business needs. Innovation slows. Agility suffers. And digital transformation becomes harder to sustain at scale.
DAZZM’s Usage-Based Pricing: Flexibility that matches the promise of low-code
As low-code platforms become more central to digital transformation, enterprise teams seek pricing models that reflect the way they actually create and deliver software. Traditional licensing structures — tied to fixed users, app limits, or feature tiers — often hold back innovation and discourage the very agility that low-code is meant to enable.
DAZZM takes a different approach.
Pricing isn’t based on how many users you have, how many applications you create, or which tier you select. Instead, we price based on the value delivered by the platform.
Costs are measured on active end-user minutes.
Your team can build what they need, when they need it—without triggering an open-ended cost meter. With DAZZM, your investment is tied to actual usage: whether you’re creating one mission-critical app or a dozen small internal tools, you only pay for the minutes your team ACTIVELY uses the platform. Think of it like your utility (hydro, electricity or gas) meter—it’s not about what kind of app you’re building, but how much energy (or in this case, platform time) you consume. The platform can stay open all day, but the meter only runs when it’s actively being used.
Low-code pricing that adapts to the rhythm of your business
With DAZZM, costs naturally align with your usage patterns. During peak periods—like the lead-up to the holidays in retail—platform usage (and cost) may rise. But during slower cycles, it could cost little to nothing.
This flexibility also applies across the app lifecycle. As an application moves from development to testing, early deployment, and finally rollout, your costs scale gradually. There’s no need to pay upfront for capacity you won’t need for months to come.
It’s fairer, more scalable, and aligned with the way modern teams operate.
Here are a few examples that highlight what a typical project might look like in terms of development effort and ongoing usage costs:
1. Simple Webinar Subscription Form
Small application that collects webinar registrations and sends notifications to the webinar team.
Development Time: 2 hours
Webinar Registrations: 350 registrants
Usage Cost (while registration is open): $100
2. Timesheet Application
Complex internal tool used for tracking employee hours.
Development Time: 10–20 person-days
Company Size: 350 employees submitting timesheets
Annual Usage Cost: $25,000
3. Customer-Facing Support Request Portal
Application designed to manage incoming customer support requests.
Development Time: 10-20 person-days
Request Volume: 125 requests per month
Annual Usage Cost: $10,000 (~$6.50 per request)
Benefits of usage-based low-code platform pricing
/ Encourages Experimentation
Your team can test ideas and quickly launch prototypes without worrying about license limits. Validate quickly without the worry of failure or cost overruns.
/ Removes Cost-Related Development Bottlenecks
Create unlimited small apps or large-scale complex enterprise solutions without renegotiating contracts or waiting on budget approvals. Your delivery pace stays aligned with business needs.
/ Faster Time-to-Value
With no license delays or setup required, teams can start building immediately—often faster than most modern low-code platforms. Apps go from concept to launch in days, reducing development time, resource demands, and opportunity costs. The result? Quicker wins, faster iterations, and real business impact.
/ Cost Efficiency at Scale
The more you actively use the platform, the more value you generate. Over time, the effective cost per app goes down, making it sustainable for long-term digital growth.
/ Fully Managed Environment
With a fully managed low-code platform, hosting is built-in, so there are no hidden fees. You can avoid resource allocation for deployment, installation, or maintenance, and any upfront costs related to complex planning or integration of external tools. Just log in and start creating.
/ Strategic Resource Allocation
Invest in usage, not access, so your budget reflects real outcomes. And with no seat-based restrictions, your team can allocate time, talent, and effort where it delivers the most value, not where licenses allow.
/ Improved Collaboration
No user seat restrictions mean developers, analysts, and business users can work together seamlessly. Real teamwork — not silos.
/ Supports Hybrid Environments
Combine traditional and low-code development without “pricing out” your low-code initiatives. This model supports flexible IT strategies, not one-size-fits-all plans.
Usage-based pricing delivers the freedom to create at any scale
The ideal low-code development platform isn’t just about features — it’s about how pricing unlocks innovation. Usage-based pricing makes that possible.
With DAZZM, pricing aligns with how modern teams actually work. Scale without jumping through budget hoops, prototype freely, collaborate across business and IT, and adapt quickly as business needs evolve.
It encourages a cycle where creating more apps leads to more value — and builds lasting momentum across your organization.
Rigid licensing, by contrast, slows things down. It ties innovation to user limits and budget cycles — not business priorities.
That’s why pricing strategy matters as much as platform features. When you pair the right low-code strategy with a usage-based model like DAZZM’s, you create room to grow, test, improve, and deliver — without friction.
Want to know what that looks like in practice?
We’ll show you how affordable and scalable enterprise-grade low-code can be — and help you calculate the true cost of innovation with DAZZM.
